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Life
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Novel Therapeutics and Prognostications in Gastrointestinal Cancers
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Novel Therapeutics and Prognostications in Gastrointestinal Cancers

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Research".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 4689

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Chien-Feng Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chi Mei Medical Center/National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan 367, Taiwan
Interests: urothelial cancer; sarcoma; molecular pathology; experimental therapeutics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and leads to a number of cancer-related morbidity and mortality. GI cancer is heterogeneous, involving a wide range of organs including the esophagus, stomach, hepatobiliary system, pancreas, small and large intestines, rectum and anus. It is also quite diverse as regards its histological types, which consist mainly of adenocarcinoma, followed by neuroendocrine tumor, sarcoma, and hematopoietic neoplasms. The etiology is also quite diverse. For example, gastroesophageal reflux disease, Helicobacter pylori, inflammatory bowel disease, and hepatitis B or C virus infection are associated with the development of esophageal, gastric, intestinal and liver cancers, respectively. Of note, a certain number of GI cancers can be inherited. Noteworthy, GI cancer is often diagnosed in an advanced stage. For those, traditional chemotherapy may benefit patient outcome, but the survival remains poor. Recently, various targeted therapies have been developed based on increased understanding of the molecular features and immunogenicity of GI cancers, and remarkable survival benefits in certain subsets of patients have been archived. Accordingly, systemic identification and validation of novel therapeutics and prognostic models and biomarkers would most likely gain patients benefit.

With this concept, the aim of this Special Issue is to collect manuscripts associated with the following points to allow the delivery of precision oncology in GI cancers:

  1. The prognostic patterns/models (either statistics or biomedical) for GI cancers.
  2. The novel biomarkers carrying either therapeutic or prognostic values for GI cancers.
  3. Novel agents or novel strategies for the treatment of GI cancers, either in vitro or in in vivo.

Prof. Dr. Chien-Feng Li
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • gastrointestinal cancers
  • molecular
  • pathogenesis
  • prognosis
  • therapy
  • theranostic

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 3137 KiB  
Article
Utility of RGNEF in the Prediction of Clinical Prognosis in Patients with Rectal Cancer Receiving Preoperative Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy
by Chih-I. Chen, Hsin-Pao Chen, Kuang-Wen Liu, Chu-Chun Chien and Yu-Ching Wei
Life 2022, 12(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12010018 - 23 Dec 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1973
Abstract
Rectal cancer is a heterogeneous malignancy with different clinical responses to preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). To discover the significant genes associated with CCRT response, we performed data mining of a transcriptomic dataset (GSE35452), including 46 rectal cancer patients who received preoperative CCRT and [...] Read more.
Rectal cancer is a heterogeneous malignancy with different clinical responses to preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). To discover the significant genes associated with CCRT response, we performed data mining of a transcriptomic dataset (GSE35452), including 46 rectal cancer patients who received preoperative CCRT and underwent standardized curative resection. We identified ARHGEF28 as the most significantly upregulated gene correlated with resistance to CCRT among the genes related to Rho guanyl-nucleotide exchange factor activity (GO:0005085). We enrolled 172 patients with rectal cancer receiving CCRT with radical surgery. The expression of ARHGEF28 encoded protein, Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor (RGNEF), was assessed using immunohistochemistry. The results showed that upregulated RGNEF immunoexpression was considerably correlated with poor response to CCRT (p = 0.018), pre-CCRT positive nodal status (p = 0.004), and vascular invasion (p < 0.001). Furthermore, high RGNEF expression was significantly associated with worse local recurrence-free survival (p < 0.0001), metastasis-free survival (MeFS) (p = 0.0029), and disease-specific survival (DSS) (p < 0.0001). The multivariate analysis demonstrated that RGNEF immunoexpression status was an independent predictor of DSS (p < 0.001) and MeFS (p < 0.001). Using Gene Ontology enrichment analysis, we discovered that ARHGEF28 overexpression might be linked to Wnt/β-catenin signaling in rectal cancer progression. In conclusion, high RGNEF expression was related to unfavorable pathological characteristics and independently predicted worse clinical prognosis in patients with rectal cancer undergoing CCRT, suggesting its role in risk stratification and clinical decision making. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Therapeutics and Prognostications in Gastrointestinal Cancers)
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13 pages, 3009 KiB  
Systematic Review
Can The ‘Speed Bump Sign’ Be a Diagnostic Tool for Acute Appendicitis? Evidence-Based Appraisal by Meta-Analysis and GRADE
by Ling Wang, Ching-Hsien Ling, Pei-Chun Lai and Yen-Ta Huang
Life 2022, 12(2), 138; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020138 - 18 Jan 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
Objectives: The ‘speed bump sign’ is a clinical symptom characterised by aggravated abdominal pain while driving over speed bumps. This study aimed to perform a diagnostic meta-analysis, rate the certainty of evidence (CoE) and analyse the applicability of the speed bump sign in [...] Read more.
Objectives: The ‘speed bump sign’ is a clinical symptom characterised by aggravated abdominal pain while driving over speed bumps. This study aimed to perform a diagnostic meta-analysis, rate the certainty of evidence (CoE) and analyse the applicability of the speed bump sign in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Materials and Methods: Four databanks and websites were systemically searched, and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 was used to evaluate the risk of bias. Meta-analysis was assessed by MIDAS commands in Stata 15. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology was applied to examine the CoE. Results: Four studies with 343 participants were included. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.94 (95% CI (confidence interval) = 0.83–0.98; I2 = 79%) and 0.49 (95% CI = 0.33–0.66; I2 = 67%), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.78 (95% CI = 0.74–0.81). The diagnostic odds ratio was 14.1 (95% CI = 3.6–55.7). The pooled positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR (+) and LR (−)) were 1.84 (95% CI = 1.30–2.61) and 0.13 (95% CI = 0.04–0.41), respectively. According to Fagan’s nomogram plot, when the pretest probabilities were 25%, 50% and 75%, the related posttest probabilities increased to 38%, 65% and 85% calculated through LR (+), respectively, and the posttest probabilities were 4%, 12% and 28% calculated through LR (−), respectively. The overall CoEs were low and very low in sensitivity and specificity, respectively. Conclusion: Current evidence shows that the speed bump sign is a useful ‘rule-out’ test for diagnosing acute appendicitis. With good accessibility, the speed bump sign may be added as a routine part of taking the history of patients with abdominal pain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Therapeutics and Prognostications in Gastrointestinal Cancers)
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